Comments on Felix Dodds through the years

“He is a genius for convincing the most skeptical legislator of the eminent reasonableness of the sustainable development case.”

  RT Hon JOHN GUMMER MP, former UK Secretary of State for the Environment

“Felix has been a passionate campaigner for people’s involvement in the central challenges of our time – how to balance our consumption of natural resources with the earth’s capacity, at the same time as addressing global inequality and poverty. He has enormously enriched the global intellectual debate on sustainability issues and has been a “thought leader” of his age.”

Dr CRISPIAN OLVER, former South African Director General Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism

“Felix has been a true global leader, a unique person with the capacity to define global issues, based on an in-depth understanding of the concerns and priorities of stakeholders at all levels. Such a breath of vision is rare, and we feel privileged to have been able to work so closely with Felix throughout the Rio+20 processes.”

PAULA CABALLERO GOMEZ, Director, Directorate of Economic, Social and Environmental of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Columbia – the mother of the Sustainable Development Goals

“Felix Dodds has been a closer partner of mine with whom we liaised on many issues around the UN environmental governance reform as well as during the entire period of the OWG. His passion for all matters environment, and his great network particularly with NGOs and all various experts that work on the multilateral process around the environmental agenda is extremely impressive

He is one of the most committed professionals that I have had the pleasure to work with.”

AMBASSADOR MACHARIA KAMAU, Co-Chair General Assembly Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals and Co-Facilitator on the INC for Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development

“Felix Dodds is a passionate and articulate campaigner for environmental sustainability. He has in-depth familiarity with major international negotiations on sustainable development and has helped to shape the critical policy debates which grace rise to and accompanied these processes.”

AMBASSADOR DAVID DONOGHUE, Co-Facilitator on the INC for Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development            

“I couldn’t dare to admit to which extent Felix has influenced international sustainable development policy”.

  JORGE LAGUNA CELIS, former Permanent Mission of Mexico to the UN (Rio+20)

“It takes a special kind of stamina to survive international processes and negotiations. It takes a very special person to make sense of it all and to help others do the same. And it takes a very, very special person to have fun at the same time. Meet Felix Dodds – a very, very special person.”

 RACHEL KYTE, former Vice President of Sustainable Development, World Bank

 “Felix Dodds has been a welcome fixture of the sustainable development process since the 1992 Earth Summit and Agenda 21. No author I know has the capacity and talent for analyzing the agonizing negotiations over decades. His insight, contacts and ability to conceptualize made him the person to truthfully record the SDG history and intricate negotiations leading to the hopeful 2030s. In this latest co-authored book, he transcends the stakeholder’s perspective and delves, as he always did, into the background of what governments decided, and why. I highly recommend this book for all those interested in following the process.”

ANDREY VAVILOV, former Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to UNEP and HABITAT

“Felix’s vision and efforts have given Stakeholder Forum an important leadership role in shelping to strengthen UN-NGO relations and processes, frame dialogue and direction on Rio+20 and the development agenda.”

AMBASSADOR LIz THOMPSON (Barbados), former UN Assistant Secretary General for Rio+20

“There is hardly anyone who knows the international sustainable development scene better than Felix Dodds. A lot of the progress that has been achieved over the past could not have been achieved without his engagement and input.”

ADNAN AMAIN, former Director-General, International Renewable Energy Agency and CEO of the Dubai Climate COP

Felix Dodds deserves high respect and admiration for his unswerving and dedicated efforts as one of the key leaders of the global NGO movement for sustainable development for decades.”

 LARS GORAN ENGFELDT, former Environment Ambassador Sweden

“I think it is a good idea that Felix Dodds is standing for the UNEP executive director (2019). He knows all about the United Nations ecosystem and is deeply dedicated to protecting the environment. Felix is a truly free individual, independent from any nation or lobby.

BRICE LALONDE, former UN Assistant Secretary General for Rio+20 and Ambassador for Climate Change, France

“Felix is a rock on which Stakeholder Forum built a generation of influence, initiatives, responding campaigns and successes.”

  JEAN PIERRE THIBAULT, former Environment Ambassador of France

“Experienced journalists covering UN negotiating meetings on sustainable development issues tend to make a beeline for Felix Dodds to discover what is going on.”

GEOFFREY LEAN, award-winning environmental journalist

“Felix Dodds has been a welcome fixture of the sustainable development process since the 1992 Earth Summit and Agenda 21. No author I know has the capacity and talent for analyzing the agonizing negotiations over decades. His insight, contacts, and ability to conceptualize made him the person to truthfully record the SDG history and intricate negotiations leading to the hopeful 2030s.

MARY ROBINSON, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation: Climate Justice, Former President of Ireland (1990–1997) and Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997–2002)

Having spent quite sometime with Felix during the time I served as Co-Chair on the team of experts that worked on the Bonn led “Energy, Water, and Food Security Nexus” process that was one of the key contributions from the Germany Government to the Rio Sustainable Development Summit in 2012, and the time we spent on different panels during the summit in developing the SDGs, clearly Felix demonstrated not only his professional merits but also continued commitment to participate in paving the paths that would ensure achieving the SDGs. As a former Minister responsible for Energy and Water in the Republic of Rwanda and my continued engagement in the energy and climate change-related initiatives in the developing world, I think I have a good feeling of what a lead on this important undertaking would be like, and I have no doubt that Felix meets all it would take (2019 pitch for UNEP Executive Director).

Dr. ALBERT BUTARE, former Rwanda Minister of Energy and Water

FELIX DODDS – SPEECHES AND INTERVIEWS

Felix Dodds at SB62 (2025) Cities, climate, and convergence: What the first Annual Review on the Rio Conventions tells us

“Big changes don’t come easily in a fractured world like ours is now,” said Felix Dodds, Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina and longtime advisor on global governance. “But small, well-planned changes, especially when rooted in local action, can build the foundation for something transformative.”

Felix Dodds interview on the Blue Economy (2018)

” A Blue Economy Investment Facility and associated process would allow governments to accelerate, focus and strengthen moves towards a genuine Blue Economy approach. They would be able to utilize their and private sector expertise and orientate, develop, and tender projects and initiatives which deliver improved livelihoods, improved environmental quality, and improved spending of investment flows.

Appropriate investment principles, recognized by the international community of donors, lenders and other investors can help consolidate the process and drive it forward in a sustainable manner.”

Felix Dodds Interview in Forbes on the Sustainable Development Goals (2015)

“I believe even in these challenging times we live in, the next generation needs to not become a generation of crisis, it needs to not be a generation of fear. It could, with these agendas, become a generation of hope and solidarity. Let’s use these agendas to innovate to have the vision and the courage to make this a reality for every woman, man, and child in the world.”

Felix Dodds, September 2011 Press Conference for the 64th UN DPI NGO Conference

“The current economic model, which has brought unprecedented prosperity to the more developed countries and to particular people in those countries, has only deepened the disparity between them and most developing countries. The parallels between the ecological problems and the financial crisis are clear. The banks and financial institutions privatised the gains and socialised the losses. We are doing the same with the planet’s natural capital. Our present lifestyles are drawing down the ecological capital from other parts of the world and from future generations. We are increasingly becoming the most irresponsible generation our planet has seen. The past 30 years have been characterised by irresponsible capitalism, pursuing limitless economic growth at the expense of both society and environment, with little or no regard for the natural resource base upon which such wealth is built.”

Felix Dodds, November 2010 Speech to UN General Assembly

“Senator Robert Kennedy wrote in 1968: “A revolution is coming— a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough. But a revolution is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.” Strong words from a Presidential candidate in 1968 when he was talking about the issue of civil rights in his country. We now in 2008 can see that the end result can be positive with the election of the first Black President in the history of the United States. A more fundamental revolution is needed, not in 40 years time and not only in one country, but in the next ten to twenty years and across the globe. We need a revolution in the way we live on this planet. We, as a species, no longer have eighty, fifty or even twenty years to take that turn. It is time for all individuals to reconsider their attitudes regarding their consumption patterns. It is time for political parties to be honest about the options the world faces. It is time for governments and the U.N. to take action necessary to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and to pioneer a development path on which all the world’s billions can survive sustainably on this one planet.

“Our present lifestyles are drawing down the ecological capital from other parts of the world and from future generations. We are increasingly becoming the most irresponsible generation our planet has seen.”

Felix Dodds, May 2010 Speech to Rio+20 Conference Prepcom

The challenges are great – climate change is one of many. A Summit in 2012 will have to address the financial and environmental architecture that we need to live on this small planet together and in harmony. It will have to deal with the challenges of food, water and energy security, as well as the impacts of increased migration and the need to preserve our basic ecosystems. It surely is a time for us all to come together and work to create a blueprint for a sustainable planet once and for all. “

Felix Dodds, November 2008 from the Donostia Declaration

“The future is in our hands rather than those of the party leaders, and the crisis of peace versus war, development versus despair, sustainability versus annihilation, are ours to solve.”

Felix Dodds, May 2005 speech at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, preparing for the World Summit 2005

“We are now seeing the emergence of this new paradigm because developed governments have not delivered on their Rio and Johannesburg commitments. Not because the conversation was wrong about what needed to be done – it just wasn’t delivered. By 2012, 20 years from Rio, we need another Earth Summit this time on human and environmental security. If we don’t, then the agenda of sustainable development will be dictated by the security concerns bringing major impacts on our lives and our democracies.”

Felix Dodds and Richard Sherman, May 2006 BBC article

“The next generation need not become a generation of crisis, it need not be a generation of fear – it could be a generation of hope and solidarity.”

Felix Dodds,March 2002 in Environment and Human Security – An Agenda for Change. London: Earthscan,

“These changes [we call for] demand an opening up, not a closing down, of our societies. The creation of a strong democracy is one that needs an ever vigilant and vibrant civil society. The world will always have different visions of the societies we want to create, as the human imagination has immense capability. The involvement of all stakeholders is one way of harnessing this capability.”

Felix Dodds, March 2005 in Environment and Human Security – An Agenda for Change. London: Earthscan,

“The work of NGOs around the UN Commission on Sustainable Development over the last decade has become a beacon of hope for changing the intergovernmental negotiating process from a talking shop approach to a democratic space for global problem solving.”

Felix Dodds, May 2001. From The Corridors To The Table – The Evolution Of The CSD NGO Steering Committee. In M. Edwards (Ed.): Global Citizen Action. New York: Reinner